Quite how long the footballing deities are going to make Leeds United keep paying for the sins of previous eras remains to be seen, but as if being owned by a convicted fraudster and being without a shirt sponsor was not enough, Sam Byram, the classy young midfielder whose sweetly hit shot secured a point that was the least they deserved from this match, was probably playing one of his last games for the club.
The versatile 22-year-old has refused to sign a new contract and is expected to move on during the transfer window, with Liverpool at the head of a queue of Premier League clubs looking to acquire his services at a relatively knock-down price. “Sam has a decision to make,” said Steve Evans, the Leeds manager. “I saw a man whose performance suggested he wanted to stay at the club, and I think maybe privately he would say that. He wasn’t in good form when I came to the club, but now he is and today he was outstanding.
“And isn’t it just nice of the Football League to give us a fixture [on Tuesday] against a team as good as Derby, two days after we appear here and they get an extra 30 hours to recover. That’s not right for football and the integrity of the competition.”
History, and the fact it was pretty much the only game in town, ensured a level of interest in this match that the positions occupied by these teams coming into the game – 15th against 13th – might otherwise have struggled to justify. In fairness, however, both have found a measure of form in recent weeks, Forest having won four in a row at home, and become harder to beat away, while Leeds were unbeaten in four, three of which were victories.
Leeds settled more quickly in terms of looking comfortable in possession, but little had been created by either side when Forest went ahead with a Nélson Oliveira goal which owed far too much to poor decision-making by the Leeds centre-back Giuseppe Bellusci and goalkeeper Marco Silvestri. Bellusci should have cut out Matt Mills’ long ball but when he failed to do so – and went to ground – Silvestri should have kicked the ball clear. His hesitation, however, allowed Oliveira to touch the ball past him before side-footing into the empty net, his sixth goal of the season.
The game then resumed its previous pattern, Leeds having the considerable majority of possession – 74% in the first-half, according to the official stats - and looking neat and purposeful until they got close to the Forest penalty area, where Chris Wood was getting little change from Mills and Jack Hobbs. Forest, with David Vaughan the game’s dominant influence, looked the more dangerous side going forward but created as many chances as Leeds, which is to say none.
Other than the goal, Oliveira’s free-kick over the bar from 20 yards shortly after the start of the second half was Forest’s first really decent shooting opportunity. As was Wood’s volley for Leeds a few minutes later, which the New Zealander sliced high and wide, but at least the game was becoming a little more stretched.
Shortly before the hour Mills met Henri Lansbury’s corner with a header which Luke Murphy kicked off the line, and at last the chances started to come, although it required a shot of real class from Byram to beat Dorus de Vries in the Forest goal.
Both sides could have won it, Mirco Antenucci and Wood missing good chances for Leeds, but it was the Forest substitute Oliver Burke who went closest with a shot from outside the penalty area that beat Silvestri all ends up but came back off the inside of the goalkeeper’s right-hand post.
“We were the totally dominant team playing all the football – we made enough chances to win the game and if they’d won, it would have been a travesty,” Evans added.
The Forest manager Dougie Freedman, who did not shake hands with Evans after the game, made no apologies for playing a counterattacking game, despite his team being at home. “I felt we controlled the game out of possession,” he said.
“You have to look at the best way to win the game. Individually Leeds have good players and I felt it was working – but we did need to kill them off, we had the chances to do so, and the disappointment was that we failed to do so.”
Man of the match David Vaughan (Nottingham Forest)
